You Bring the Ducks (1934) User Reviews

Hunting for a Series

[boblipton · 5/10 · 16 November 2015]

Irvin Cobb takes Governor Oscar Apfel duck hunting. He figures if the great man has a good time, a cushy job will will result.

Until I saw this short subject on TCM, I had no idea that Hal Roach tried out Cobb for short subjects. The IMDb lists three others in 1934, which I also have never heard of. Roach was still trying to produce quality short subjects, but within a year he would decide he could not make any money in them and give up.

As for this one, it is not top-notch Roach, and a lot of the gags are standard ones or depend on photographic effects. There is an attempt to build some byplay between Cobb and Apfel a la Laurel & Hardy, but it doesn't come off. Cobb comes equipped with a sister and idiot nephew and there isn't enough screen time to build anything more than a series of gags.

It's impossible to say what, if anything, the Roach staff intended for this series, but the family set-up indicates that they had Edgar Kennedy's "Average Man" series at RKO as a model. Perhaps it was that thought of not knowing what they wanted that kept this one from being more than intermittently funny. I suspect they just plugged on ahead regardless of the results.

You bring the laughs

[hte-trasme · 4/10 · 12 October 2009]

"You Bring the Ducks" is the first I've seen from the set of short subjects that Hal Roach produced starring Irvin Cobb, a well-known writer of rustic humor. Cobb, not originally a comedian or actor, was, I suppose, chosen to star as he was a well-known and -liked figure with a distinctive appearance. An older, larger man, Cobb delivers most of his dialogue very slowly to no particular comic effect. The chief impression he gives is one of not really acting for the camera but simply being himself while it is rolling. This works a little better for a great performer such as W. C. Fields than it does for Cobb. When he is called upon to do some deliberate "acting" it looks stilted, out-of-place and way overplayed.

The material he is given here is also not the best that the Hal Roach creative team ever devised. Essentially, after an overlong sequence in which everybody wakes up in the morning, Irvin is going to go fishing with the Governor in an attempt to get appointed to a position. For some reason, his wife and nephew maliciously do their best to make him as miserable as possible and ruin his trip. Irvin's response is to attempt to lock his nephew in a closet for the duration of the excursion.

There are a few good gags in here amidst this strange ill-will, but a surprising number of them fall flat, including anything to do with a dog acting cutely human-like. Some will be interested to note that there are some sequences combining animation with the live action, but these are relatively forgettable. It seems the Roach creative didn't really know what to do when presented with a star such as Cobb, and the result was not one of the studio's lesser comedy shorts.

shortie from h roach studios

[ksf-2 · 5/10 · 24 March 2017]

This sixteen minute shortie from Hal Roach is interesting if you're a fan of Oscar Apfel... he had done a few silents, then moved right into the talkies. The plot of "Ducks" can be summed up as old fashioned slapstick comedy; the climax is a Three Stooges-type dinner, where they try to eat the ducks, but they go slip sliding around, and when the ducks squirt the other diner, no-one seems to notice except the one being squirted. Was probably pretty funny at the time, but its pretty dated material now. Irvin Cobb, instantly recognizable, with the giant round face, stars as himself, taking the governor hunting. Director Hal Yates wrote and directed millions of shorts, having been in vaudeville all those years. Benny Baker, also from vaudeville, is the nephew... he was just getting his start in Hollywood. Shown on turner classics now and then. Its okay.